Which Jesus is the Most Accurate Portrait?

I recently read the book “Heaven is for Real” by Todd Burpo. It is a story of his son, who died as a young boy and went to Heaven then returned and shared his experiences with his family. One of the questions that was commonly asked for a few years was if he saw Jesus and what Jesus looked like. For a long while the young boy saw many paintings and depictions of Jesus but said they were not accurate. That is until he saw the painting by Akaine Kramarik, a young child who had visions of Jesus as well. The picture is below:

This picture of Jesus was one I had never seen before. According to this picture, it looks like Jesus has trimmed his hair and is caught up with the modern-day look!

Compare that picture with the picture below:

This picture is one of the most famous LDS paintings out there, by Del Parsons. According to Mormon folklore, a prophet told him this was the most accurate depiction of Jesus and was therefore approved for world-wide distribution.

However, there is another Jesus painting by Heinrich Hoffman that, according to this blogger, is the current LDS prophet, Thomas S Monson’s favorite picture of Jesus as shown below:

I’ve never seen Jesus or had a vision of Jesus, so I really can’t judge which one is more accurate than the other. I’m sure Jesus could really make himself look however he wanted himself to look, really. I guess sooner or later all of us will find out though!

Just for fun, I’ll add a little poll. Which Jesus do you think is the most accurate?

Jesus was of semitic, mediterranean origin. He would have had a medium-brown complex, dark eyes, prominent nose, and short – probably curly – hair (I don’t think Paul would have been so critical about men with long hair it the Savior wore His that way). He probably had a beard, but it’s interesting that the earliest depictions of him show Him show Him clean shaven. It’s always seemed the the culture of the artist has had more to do with the depiction of Jesus than the cultural of Jesus (1sr century Palestine) does.

I saw the movie, and I loved the inspirational message of hope with the knowledge that heaven is real. However, I was somewhat taken aback at the end with the picture because, as you indicated, it was not historically correct. In an interview, Akaine Kramarik said the model was a carpenter that knocked on her door.

I thought his book painted a portrait of Jesus that fit all too neatly into the evangelical vision of things. The fact is, we don’t know what Jesus looked like — at all. He certainly didn’t look like the Danish Jesus whose likeness is hangingin our chapel. Some scholars argue — correctly, I think — that if anything characterizes the physical appearance of Jesus it was his ordinariness. If true, that should be of great comfort to most of us ordinary people.

I had a vision of Jesus Years ago just after I became converted. I actually thought it might of been John the Baptist for awhile because I had been thinking something about John at the time of vision or there abouts, but it didn’t feel right, But when I realised it was Jesus I felt a great peace & conviction come to me,. He was standing at an outside entrance that seemed to lead to the Celestial Kingdom. As though he was saying this is where you & others who are worthy will first enter.
And i’m telling this not to boast but as a Witness & that the first picture is definetly the closest to how Jesus looked, Mainly because of the Wavy hair, eyeBrows & the Beard may have been just a bit more bushier on the sides.

The reason why I voted for Akaine’s “Prince Of Peace” painting was because Jesus of Nazareth probably Did NOT have long hair!! Why would Jesus not practice what he preaches? He said in 1st Corinthians 11:14
“Does not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man has long hair, it is a shame to him?”
.. So, Jesus didn’t have long hair.. Not to mention back then Jewish Guys probably thought oh long hair as a feminine thing like Breast: only women have them!

I also appreciated this Blog! I think all paintings are nice overall.. But I guess it defeats the purpose if it doesn’t truly show what they intended.

We don’t know what Jesus looked like, although Isaiah tells us he was plain looking. I found Tod Burpo’s book completely off-putting as soon as his son described Jesus. Joseph Smith never described Jesus other than to say he was a glorified being. We too have the Danish Jesus hanging in our chapel. I doubt Jesus looked anything like what we imagine.

I just finished a book by Mel Bond called “Why Jesus Appears to People Today.” In it he describes one of his encounters with Jesus in heaven. He said,

“I turned around to see Jesus about 200 feet behind me. I began to gently run toward Him and He did the same. Jesus had this great, warm and friendly smile. I really do not have the adequate words to describe the divinity that is placed in a person’s life when looking into Jesus eyes. . . . The experience of being in Jesus’ presence and looking into His eyes caused me to feel like I was the most important person in all of existence to Jesus. Please know this: Jesus feels the exact same way about every human being.”